Hello. Great idea.
> The PHP runtime already provides components that could serve as a foundation > — e.g. php -l for syntax checking, reflection APIs, AST via php-ast, and > insights from static analysis tools > like Psalm or PHPStan. At the moment, PHP has several static analyzers. But what would be really great is the ability to extend and combine them — for example, having a separate module that determines the data type of a variable. That component would be invaluable and could be reused for various purposes, not just within LSP. In JavaScript, the equivalent of such a “ring of power” was the Babel project, which allowed manipulating the AST and writing custom plugins. I think PHP could benefit greatly if such a tool were built as a standard for AST analysis, allowing small plugins to be created for it with minimal effort. --- Ed
